March 2010
9 posts
Caged by circumstances: home as a state of mind
I’ve written before about “home” being a concept, a state of mind rather than a place.
I believe a big cause of people feeling “rootless”, like they don’t belong is due to them not being where they want to be. People will often associate these feelings with “being homesick” (if they have just moved), or not liking the place they are in, but I...
"Safe" jobs & investments don't exist
The global financial crisis and recession has turned a lot of old “truths” on its head. “You can bank on it” is an expression born out of the notion that banks are conservative, sound and safe. Is that true anymore? Permanent employment is more safe than freelancing or entrepreneurship. Or is it? The masses of permanent employees who endured lower wages and less...
Businesses dont "do" anything, they sell and...
I have done projects for a number of businesses over the years as a freelance consultant, and a realisation has slowly dawned on me: Most information/technology businesses are actually not experts in their chosen market/domain in the strictly technical sense - I’ve done work for numerous businesses who where appalingly bad at actually executing and delivering on what they where supposed...
Spending vs. Investing
Last week, I wrote about the importance of making yourself replaceable to really be able to scale your business. No sooner did Colin of Exile Lifestyle write about being overhead free, not spending money on anything you can do yourself or get for free. The two posts are unrelated of course, but I still feel I should address Colin’s point of view:
Costs are not the problem Colin correctly...
Consumerism is the opiate of the people
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. - Karl Marx
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Become a success by making yourself replaceable
In the corporate world, people usually do all that they can to make themselves indispensable, both for career progression and for job safety. In the best case, people will work hard to stand out as high performers, more often though, people will hoard information, obstruct other people from understanding what they do all the way down to outright backstabbing and bad mouthing of colleagues.
If...
Why you should stop listening to people
When you have fresh business ideas, the only test you should do with other people is to see if they get what it is you want to do quickly. Can you explain it on short terms? Beyond that, assuming you are not dealing with a balanced and very creative person, you should not care too much whether they think it’s a good idea or a bad one, you should also take any “advise” with...
Hot days, never ending nights in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is a city that at times seems to be in terminal economical and moral decline: the economy is a mess, there is no shortage of scammers, robbers, crooks and not least dodgy and corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. At the edges, the city seems to be falling apart in slow motion. Yet inevitably the city gets under the skin of most people that visit it.
The locals have a rare gift for...
Guest Post
In case you missed it (and I forgot to mention it here), I wrote a guest post on Ophelia’s Webb, in Elisa Doucette’s “All You Need..” February blog series. You can find my entry here.